Apple's (AAPL) market cap falls to third place behind Microsoft and Amazon

Apple Inc. AAPL, +0.15% once again lost its position as the most valuable U.S. company to Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -0.05% after its shares fell 1.1% in Thursday’s session amid renewed fears about China tensions and weak iPhone demand. The company finished Thursday’s session with a market cap of $829 billion, behind Microsoft MSFT, -0.05% at $838.3 billion and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +0.14% at $830.9 billion. Microsoft shares rose 0.6% in Thursday trading and Amazon’s stock gained 1.9%. The three companies have been jockeying for the top spot in recent weeks, following years of Apple’s dominance. Microsoft and Amazon have been closing the gap as they continue to show strong growth in their cloud-computing businesses. At the same time, there is fresh concern about Apple’s ability to continue sustaining iPhone demand at high price points. Apple shares have gained just 3% so far this year, while Amazon’s stock has risen 45% and Microsoft’s has gained 27%. The S&P 500 SPX, -0.15% is up 0.8% in that time, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.32% of which Microsoft and Apple are components, is up 0.9%.